Longlisted for the 2015 Stella Prize

Golden Boys – Sonya Hartnett

Fiction · Penguin Books

Golden Boys

About the book

“Hartnett has a brilliant gift for creating an atmosphere of menace, and she does not fear the dark.

– 2015 Stella Prize Judges

Sonya Hartnett

About the author


Sonya Hartnett

Further Reading


Reviews

“[Hartnett’s] prose is exquisitely crafted – simple, yet dense with meaning – and her portrayal of what it feels like to be a teenager, of the awkwardness and alienation that so often defines the bewildering transition to adulthood, is always compelling.” – Victoria Flanagan, Sydney Review of Books

“Sonya Hartnett is that rarest and most precious of writers: a reverse Peter Pan. Though the subject matter of her books is centrally concerned with the experience of childhood and youth, this has nothing to do with any refusal to grow up on the author’s part. Rather, her fictions insist that we, whether jaded adults or teenagers keen to escape an atmosphere of general humiliation, grow down: return to that era of our lives when skin was raw to philosophy and experience – when we were helplessly abraded by the storms of love and life.” – AF, The Saturday Paper

“Spanning only a scant few weeks, Golden Boys flows as easily as a bike ride on a summer afternoon. But within its effortless unfolding are sombre themes: of the neighbourhood’s acceptance of domestic violence, and its effects on children; of the way class and money can enable and protect a predator; and how resilient, vulnerable, opportunistic and courageous children can be.” – Linda Funnell, Sydney Morning Herald

Links

Judges’ report


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